Community celebrates the opening of new cottages at HammondCare

New cottages that evoke a sense of domestic familiarity have opened in Hammondville to provide a therapeutic environment for people living with dementia. The cottages are part of a larger redevelopment project by HammondCare.

Holsworthy state Liberal MP Melanie Gibbons, Sharon Smith, Doris Jewell, John Jewell and Michelle Jewell at the opening of new dementia cottages at HammondCare in Hammondville. Picture: Cindy Ngo

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New purpose-built cottages designed for people living with dementia have opened in Hammondville as part of a larger redevelopment project at HammondCare’s aged care facility.

Named after original Hammondville families, the five cottages were designed to emulate a small village neighbourhood, with each property containing single rooms, a domestic-style kitchen, courtyards and front verandas with access to gardens.

Home for up to 50 residents, the cottages evoke a sense of domestic familiarity in line with dementia design principles.

The ribbon is cut at the open day.

Offices, storage spaces and equipment are kept out of sight in a back-of-house area to minimise institutional elements, and colour contrast is used between walls and floors to help with perception difficulties.

Community members, relatives of the original Hammondville families and dignitaries including Holsworthy state Liberal MP Melanie Gibbons were invited to tour the facilities at an open day on Tuesday.

The cottages — named after John Hatton AO, Constance Jewell, Alf Morley, George Osborne and Winifred Coles — represent the first stage of a redevelopment of HammondCare’s aged care facilities in Hammondville, which will see the creation of a new dementia and aged care village for 155 residents.

The cottages feature a number of dementia design principles.

The number of people living with dementia in Liverpool is expected to more than triple by 2050.

HammondCare chief executive Stephen Judd said the new village would add to the existing care and services in Hammondville.

“Instead of the large institutional approach that simply doesn’t work for people with

dementia, residents in Hammondville’s new cottages will benefit from the small, domestic residential care model shown by research to be the most effective way to deliver dementia care — with fewer hospitalisations and better quality of life,” he said.

It is part of a larger redevelopment project by HammondCare.

HammondCare was originally established in Hammondville, which was named after Anglican clergyman Robert Hammond, best known for his efforts in addressing the high levels of unemployment and poverty during the Great Depression.

Hammond proposed moving families from the inner city to new land as part of project called Hammond’s Pioneer Homes, which gave unemployed families the opportunity to rent-purchase homes on an acre of land and grow their own crops.

That land became known as Hammondville and by 1940 there were more than 110 homes, a school, general store, post office and a church.

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